System for processing gaming activity

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a gaming device configured to record gaming activity, a method of processing the recorded gaming activity to analyze player behavior, and a system including the gaming device. The gaming device may include a gaming display to display gaming events played on the gaming device by a player during a gaming session, a player interface panel including a plurality of gaming buttons and a game initiating button configured to initiate the gaming events, and a game processor configured to record each activity between the player and the gaming device, wherein each recorded activity is associated with a time stamp.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/458,429, filed Aug. 13, 2014, which is a divisional of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/452,435, filed Apr. 20, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No.8,834,248, issued Sep. 16, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/273,421, filed Nov. 18, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No.8,177,647, issued May 15, 2012, which are incorporated by referenceherein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This disclosure relates generally to a system used to process gamingactivity, and more particularly to a system for use with a gaming deviceto monitor and process gaming events and player input on the gamingdevice.

BACKGROUND

Casinos have long found it beneficial to closely monitor the financialperformance of gaming machines. During the past two decades, casinoshave turned to electronic monitoring, in which a communicationsconnection is established between each gaming machine and a centralstorage location or server. Game performance data is collected atregular intervals, for example, every hour, every shift, or every day,from each game and stored on the central server in an organized way.Later, another computer process examines and consolidates those recordsinto reports. Information recorded may include, wagers made, wagerspaid, games played, and even denomination of currency used to play thegames.

Often times, the above described accounting system is extended toconnect to various entry points of each game. For example, the entrydoor to a slot machine is connected to a sensor so that any door openingis immediately made known to security personnel to alert them of apotentially unauthorized entry. Other monitored entry points include thecurrency acceptor door and the coin collection door. This informationmay be used for instant security purposes and/or stored in an organizedway at a central storage location or server.

In most casinos, players are issued identification cards, which may beinserted into any gaming machine during play activities. Theseidentifiers allow the casino to measure the amount of a player's wagersand evaluate their worth. As an incentive to use the identifier card,and to establish loyalty with the casino, valuable players are offeredpoints, free meals, comps, show tickets, cash rebates, and otherrewards. Information concerning the player ID and play associated withthe player is often recorded on the same server as the above-describedaccounting information. Alternately, it is recorded on a separatecomputer server but is still organized in such a way that consolidatedreports may be created through analysis of the stored information.

The just-described processes provide useful security alerts and valuableinformation on how much players spend at each gaming machine. Toimplement them, each gaming machine is programmed to record the valuesof interest and transmit them to the central server though aspecifically defined language or protocol. Both the sender of theinformation, the gaming machine in this case, and the receiver ofinformation, in this case the central server, must be capable ofunderstanding the protocol and of formatting transmitted informationusing the protocol.

These processes and protocols provide accurate accounting records foroverall game performance. However, these processes do not help inunderstanding player behavior. For example, when a player decides toleave a gaming machine, do they do so when they run out of credits onthe machine, hit a significant jackpot, or go for a long period of timewithout hitting a significant jackpot? Do players typically wagermaximum credits for long periods and drop to lesser wagers when creditsrun low, or do they typically change wager sizes throughout a gamblingsession?

What is needed to answer these questions and others is a way todetermine player behavior on a gaming machine. Traditionally, playerbehavior is estimated through analysis of the above-described data andthrough direct observation of players as they play the gaming machines.The currently collected information simply does not provide the detailedinsights necessary to truly understand behavior and direct observationof players is difficult. This is because players do not like to bewatched. Also, it is expensive to station a person to watch each playerand even when that is done, it is difficult for the observer to note andrecord each action taken by the player. Thus, a means for automaticallyrecording detailed player behavior and a process for analyzing thatbehavior in a rapid and cost-effective way are needed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a functional block diagram that illustrates a gaming deviceaccording to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 1B is an isometric view of the gaming device illustrated in FIG.1A.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C are detail diagrams of exemplary types of gamingdevices according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of networked gaming devicesaccording to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram that illustrates a gaming deviceaccording to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a networked gaming systemaccording to embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are flow diagrams of a method of analyzing playerbehavior at a gaming device according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method of operating a gaming deviceaccording to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a method of reviewing a gaming sessionaccording to embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate example gaming devices according toembodiments of the invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, a gaming device 10 is an electronic gamingmachine. Although an electronic gaming machine or “slot” machine isillustrated, various other types of devices may be used to wagermonetarily based credits on a game of chance in accordance withprinciples of the invention. The term “electronic gaming device” ismeant to include various devices such as electro-mechanicalspinning-reel type slot machines, video slot machines, and video pokermachines, for instance. Other gaming devices may include computer-basedgaming machines, wireless gaming devices, multi-player gaming stations,modified personal electronic gaming devices (such as cell phones),personal computers, server-based gaming terminals, and other similardevices. Although embodiments of the invention will work with all of thegaming types mentioned, for ease of illustration the present embodimentswill be described in reference to the electronic gaming machine 10 shownin FIGS. 1A and 1B.

The gaming device 10 includes a cabinet 15 housing components to operatethe gaming device 10. The cabinet 15 may include a gaming display 20, abase portion 13, a top box 18, and a player interface panel 30. Thegaming display 20 may include mechanical spinning reels (FIG. 2A), avideo display (FIGS. 2B and 2C), or a combination of both spinning reelsand a video display (not shown). The gaming cabinet 15 may also includea credit meter 27 and a coin-in or bet meter 28. The credit meter 27 mayindicate the total number of credits remaining on the gaming device 10that are eligible to be wagered. In some embodiments, the credit meter27 may reflect a monetary unit, such as dollars. However, it is oftenpreferable to have the credit meter 27 reflect a number of ‘credits,’rather than a monetary unit. The bet meter 28 may indicate the amount ofcredits to be wagered on a particular game. Thus, for each game, theplayer transfers the amount that he or she wants to wager from thecredit meter 27 to the bet meter 28. In some embodiments, various othermeters may be present, such as meters reflecting amounts won, amountspaid, or the like. In embodiments where the gaming display 20 is a videomonitor, the information indicated on the credit meters may be shown onthe gaming display itself 20 (FIG. 2B).

The base portion 13 may include a lighted panel 14, a coin return (notshown), and a gaming handle 12 operable on a partially rotating pivotjoint 11. The game handle 12 is traditionally included on mechanicalspinning-reel games, where the handle may be pulled toward a player toinitiate the spinning of reels 22 after placement of a wager. The topbox 18 may include a lighted panel 17, a video display (such as an LCDmonitor), a mechanical bonus device (not shown), and a candle lightindicator 19. The player interface panel 30 may include various devicesso that a player can interact with the gaming device 10.

The player interface panel 30 may include one or more game buttons 32that can be actuated by the player to cause the gaming device 10 toperform a specific action. For example, some of the game buttons 32 maycause the gaming device 10 to bet a credit to be wagered during the nextgame, change the number of lines being played on a multi-line game, cashout the credits remaining on the gaming device (as indicated on thecredit meter 27), or request assistance from casino personnel, such asby lighting the candle 19. In addition, the player interface panel 30may include one or more game actuating buttons 33. The game actuatingbuttons 33 may initiate a game with a pre-specified amount of credits.On some gaming devices 10 a “Max Bet” game actuating button 33 may beincluded that places the maximum credit wager on a game and initiatesthe game. The player interface panel 30 may further include a billacceptor 37 and a ticket printer 38. The bill acceptor 37 may accept andvalidate paper money or previously printed tickets with a creditbalance. The ticket printer 38 may print out tickets reflecting thebalance of the credits that remain on the gaming device 10 when a playercashes out by pressing one of the game buttons 32 programmed to cause a‘cashout.’ These tickets may be inserted into other gaming machines orredeemed at a cashier station or kiosk for cash.

The gaming device 10 may also include one or more speakers 26 totransmit auditory information or sounds to the player. The auditoryinformation may include specific sounds associated with particularevents that occur during game play on the gaming device 10. For example,a particularly festive sound may be played during a large win or when abonus is triggered. The speakers 26 may also transmit “attract” soundsto entice nearby players when the game is not currently being played.

The gaming device 10 may further include a secondary display 25. Thissecondary display 25 may be a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD), a liquidcrystal display (LCD), a cathode ray tube (CRT), a plasma screen, or thelike. The secondary display 25 may show any combination of primary gameinformation and ancillary information to the player. For example, thesecondary display 25 may show player tracking information, secondarybonus information, advertisements, or player selectable game options.

The gaming device 10 may include a separate information window (notshown) dedicated to supplying any combination of information related toprimary game play, secondary bonus information, player trackinginformation, secondary bonus information, advertisements or playerselectable game options. This window may be fixed in size and locationor may have its size and location vary temporally as communication needschange. One example of such a resizable window is International GameTechnology's “service window”. Another example is Las Vegas GamingIncorporated's retrofit technology which allows information to be placedover areas of the game or the secondary display screen at various timesand in various situations.

The gaming device 10 includes a microprocessor 40 that controlsoperation of the gaming device 10. If the gaming device 10 is astandalone gaming device, the microprocessor 40 may control virtuallyall of the operations of the gaming devices and attached equipment, suchas operating game logic stored in memory (not shown) as firmware,controlling the display 20 to represent the outcome of a game,communicating with the other peripheral devices (such as the billacceptor 37), and orchestrating the lighting and sound emanating fromthe gaming device 10. In other embodiments where the gaming device 10 iscoupled to a network 50, as described below, the microprocessor 40 mayhave different tasks depending on the setup and function of the gamingdevice. For example, the microprocessor 40 may be responsible forrunning the base game of the gaming device and executing instructionsreceived over the network 50 from a bonus server or player trackingserver. In a server-based gaming setup, the microprocessor 40 may act asa terminal to execute instructions from a remote server that is runninggame play on the gaming device.

The microprocessor 40 may be coupled to a machine communicationinterface (MCI) 42 that connects the gaming device 10 to a gamingnetwork 50. The MCI 42 may be coupled to the microprocessor 40 through aserial connection, a parallel connection, an optical connection, or insome cases a wireless connection. The gaming device 10 may includememory 41 (MEM), such as a random access memory (RAM), coupled to themicroprocessor 40 and which can be used to store gaming information,such as storing total coin-in statistics about a present or past gamingsession, which can be communicated to a remote server or databasethrough the MCI 42. The MCI 42 may also facilitate communication betweenthe network 50 and the secondary display 25 or a player tracking unit 45housed in the gaming cabinet 15.

The player tracking unit 45 may include an identification device 46 andone or more buttons 47 associated with the player tracking unit 45. Theidentification device 46 serves to identify a player by, for example,reading a player-tracking device, such as a player tracking card that isissued by the casino to individual players who choose to have such acard. The identification device 46 may instead, or additionally,identify players through other methods. Player tracking systems usingplayer tracking cards and card readers 46 are known in the art. Brieflysummarizing such a system, a player registers with the casino prior tocommencing gaming. The casino issues a unique player-tracking card tothe player and opens a corresponding player account that is stored on aserver or host computer, described below with reference to FIG. 3. Theplayer account may include the player's name and mailing address andother information of interest to the casino in connection with marketingefforts. Prior to playing one of the gaming devices in the casino, theplayer inserts the player tracking card into the identification device46 thus permitting the casino to track player activity, such as amountswagered, credits won, and rate of play.

To induce the player to use the card and be an identified player, thecasino may award each player points proportional to the money or creditswagered by the player. Players typically accrue points at a rate relatedto the amount wagered, although other factors may cause the casino toaward the player various amounts. The points may be displayed on thesecondary display 25 or using other methods. In conventional playertracking systems, the player may take his or her card to a special deskin the casino where a casino employee scans the card to determine howmany accrued points are in the player's account. The player may redeempoints for selected merchandise, meals in casino restaurants, or thelike, which each have assigned point values. In some player trackingsystems, the player may use the secondary display 25 to access theirplayer tracking account, such as to check a total number of points,redeem points for various services, make changes to their account, ordownload promotional credits to the gaming device 10. In otherembodiments, the identification device 46 may read other identifyingcards (such as driver licenses, credit cards, etc.) to identify a playerand match them to a corresponding player tracking account. Although FIG.1A shows the player tracking unit 45 with a card reader as theidentification device 46, other embodiments may include a playertracking unit 45 with a biometric scanner, PIN code acceptor, or othermethods of identifying a player to pair the player with their playertracking account.

During typical play on a gaming device 10, a player plays a game byplacing a wager and then initiating a gaming session. The player mayinitially insert monetary bills or previously printed tickets with acredit value into the bill acceptor 37. The player may also put coinsinto a coin acceptor (not shown) or a credit, debit or casino accountcard into a card reader/authorizer (not shown). One of skill in the artwill readily see that this invention is useful with all gamblingdevices, regardless of the manner in which wager value-input isaccomplished.

The credit meter 27 displays the numeric credit value of the moneyinserted dependent on the denomination of the gaming device 10. That is,if the gaming device 10 is a nickel slot machine and a $20 bill insertedinto the bill acceptor 37, the credit meter will reflect 400 credits orone credit for each nickel of the inserted twenty dollars. For gamingdevices 10 that support multiple denominations, the credit meter 27 willreflect the amount of credits relative to the denomination selected.Thus, in the above example, if a penny denomination is selected afterthe $20 is inserted the credit meter will change from 400 credits to2000 credits.

A wager may be placed by pushing one or more of the game buttons 32,which may be reflected on the bet meter 28. That is, the player cangenerally depress a “bet one” button (one of the buttons on the playerinterface panel 30, such as 32), which transfers one credit from thecredit meter 27 to the bet meter 28. Each time the button 32 isdepressed an additional single credit transfers to the bet meter 28 upto a maximum bet that can be placed on a single play of the electronicgaming device 10. The gaming session may be initiated by pulling thegaming handle 12 or depressing the spin button 33. On some gamingdevices 10, a “max bet” button (another one of the buttons 32 on theplayer interface panel 30) may be depressed to wager the maximum numberof credits supported by the gaming device 10 and initiate a gamingsession.

If the gaming session does not result in any winning combination, theprocess of placing a wager may be repeated by the player. Alternatively,the player may cash out any remaining credits on the credit meter 27 bydepressing the “cash-out” button (another button 32 on the playerinterface panel 30), which causes the credits on the credit meter 27 tobe paid out in the form of a ticket through the ticket printer 38, ormay be paid out in the form of returning coins from a coin hopper (notshown) to a coin return tray.

If instead a winning combination (win) appears on the display 20, theaward corresponding to the winning combination is immediately applied tothe credit meter 27. For example, if the gaming device 10 is a slotmachine, a winning combination of symbols 23 may land on a playedpayline on reels 22. If any bonus games are initiated, the gaming device10 may enter into a bonus mode or simply award the player with a bonusamount of credits that are applied to the credit meter 27.

FIGS. 2A to 2C illustrate exemplary types of gaming devices according toembodiments of the invention. FIG. 2A illustrates an examplespinning-reel gaming machine 10A, FIG. 2B illustrates an example videoslot machine 10B, and FIG. 2C illustrates an example video poker machine10C.

Referring to FIG. 2A, a spinning-reel gaming machine 10A includes agaming display 20A having a plurality of mechanical spinning reels 22A.Typically, spinning-reel gaming machines 10A have three to five spinningreels 22A. Each of the spinning reels 22A has multiple symbols 23A thatmay be separated by blank areas on the spinning reels 22A, although thepresence of blank areas typically depends on the number of reels 22Apresent in the gaming device 10A and the number of different symbols 23Athat may appear on the spinning reels 22A. Each of the symbols 22A orblank areas makes up a “stop” on the spinning reel 22A where the reel22A comes to rest after a spin. Although the spinning reels 22A ofvarious games 10A may have various numbers of stops, many conventionalspinning-reel gaming devices 10A have reels 22A with twenty two stops.

During game play, the spinning reels 22A may be controlled by steppermotors (not shown) under the direction of the microprocessor 40 (FIG.1A). Thus, although the spinning-reel gaming device 10A has mechanicalbased spinning reels 22A, the movement of the reels themselves iselectronically controlled to spin and stop. This electronic control isadvantageous because it allows a virtual reel strip to be stored in thememory 41 of the gaming device 10A, where various “virtual stops” aremapped to each physical stop on the physical reel 22A. This mappingallows the gaming device 10A to establish greater awards and bonusesavailable to the player because of the increased number of possiblecombinations afforded by the virtual reel strips.

A gaming session on a spinning reel slot machine 10A typically includesthe player pressing the “bet-one” button (one of the game buttons 32A)to wager a desired number of credits followed by pulling the gaminghandle 12 (FIGS. 1A, 1B) or pressing the spin button 33A to spin thereels 22A. Alternatively, the player may simply press the “max-bet”button (another one of the game buttons 32A) to both wager the maximumnumber of credits permitted and initiate the spinning of the reels 22A.The spinning reels 22A may all stop at the same time or may individuallystop one after another (typically from left to right) to build playeranticipation. Because the display 20A usually cannot be physicallymodified, some spinning reel slot machines 10A include an electronicdisplay screen in the top box 18 (FIG. 1B), a mechanical bonus mechanismin the top box 18, or a secondary display 25 (FIG. 1A) to execute abonus.

Referring to FIG. 2B, a video gaming machine 10B may include a videodisplay 20B to display virtual spinning reels 22B and various othergaming information 21B. The video display 20B may be a CRT, LCD, plasmascreen, or the like. It is usually preferable that the video display 20Bbe a touchscreen to accept player input. A number of symbols 23A appearon each of the virtual spinning reels 22B. Although FIG. 2B shows fivevirtual spinning reels 22B, the flexibility of the video display 20Ballows for various reel 22B and game configurations. For example, somevideo slot games 10B spin reels for each individual symbol position (orstop) that appears on the video display 20B. That is, each symbolposition on the screen is independent of every other position during thegaming sessions. In these types of games, very large numbers of paylines or multiple super scatter pays can be utilized since similarsymbols could appear at every symbol position on the video display 20B.On the other hand, other video slot games 10B more closely resemble themechanical spinning reel games where symbols that are verticallyadjacent to each other are part of the same continuous virtual spinningreel 22B.

Because the virtual spinning reels 22B, by virtue of being computerimplemented, can have almost any number of stops on a reel strip, it ismuch easier to have a greater variety of displayed outcomes as comparedto spinning-reel slot machines 10A (FIG. 2A) that have a fixed number ofphysical stops on each spinning reel 22A.

With the possible increases in reel 22B numbers and configurations overthe mechanical gaming device 10A, video gaming devices 10B often havemultiple paylines 24 that may be played. By having more paylines 24available to play, the player may be more likely to have a winningcombination when the reels 22B stop and the gaming session ends.However, since the player typically must wager at least a minimum numberof credits to enable each payline 24 to be eligible for winning, theoverall odds of winning are not much different, if at all, than if theplayer is wagering only on a single payline. For example, in a five linegame, the player may bet one credit per payline 24 and be eligible forwinning symbol combinations that appear on any of the five playedpaylines 24. This gives a total of five credits wagered and fivepossible winning paylines 24. If, on the other hand, the player onlywagers one credit on one payline 24, but plays five gaming sessions, theodds of winning would be identical as above: five credits wagered andfive possible winning paylines 24.

Because the video display 20B can easily modify the image output by thevideo display 20B, bonuses, such as second screen bonuses are relativelyeasy to award on the video slot game 10B. That is, if a bonus istriggered during game play, the video display 20B may simply store theresulting screen shot in memory and display a bonus sequence on thevideo display 20B. After the bonus sequence is completed, the videodisplay 20B may then retrieve the previous screen shot and informationfrom memory, and re-display that image.

Also, as mentioned above, the video display 20B may allow various othergame information 21B to be displayed. For example, as shown in FIG. 2B,banner information may be displayed above the spinning reels 22B toinform the player, perhaps, which symbol combination is needed totrigger a bonus. Also, instead of providing a separate credit meter 27(FIG. 1A) and bet meter 28, the same information can instead bedisplayed on the video display 20B. In addition, “soft buttons” 29B suchas a “spin” button or “help/see pays” button may be built using thetouch screen video display 20B. Such customization and ease of changingthe image shown on the display 20B adds to the flexibility of the game10B.

Even with the improved flexibility afforded by the video display 20B,several physical buttons 32B and 33B are usually provided on video slotmachines 10B. These buttons may include game buttons 32B that allow aplayer to choose the number of paylines 24 he or she would like to playand the number of credits wagered on each payline 24. In addition, a maxbet button (one of the game buttons 32B) allows a player to place amaximum credit wager on the maximum number of available paylines 24 andinitiate a gaming session. A repeat bet or spin button 33B may also beused to initiate each gaming session when the max bet button is notused.

Referring to FIG. 2C, a video poker gaming device 10C may include avideo display 20C that is physically similar to the video display 20Bshown in FIG. 2B. The video display 20C may show a poker hand of fivecards 23C and various other player information 21C including a paytablefor various winning hands, as well as a plurality of player selectablesoft buttons 29C. The video display 20C may present a poker hand of fivecards 23C and various other player information 21C including a number ofplayer selectable soft (touch-screen) buttons 29C and a paytable forvarious winning hands. Although the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3Cshows only one hand of poker on the video display 20C, various othervideo poker machines 10C may show several poker hands (multi-handpoker). Typically, video poker machines 10C play “draw” poker in which aplayer is dealt a hand of five cards, has the opportunity to hold anycombination of those five cards, and then draws new cards to replace thediscarded ones. All pays are usually given for winning combinationsresulting from the final hand, although some video poker games 10C maygive bonus credits for certain combinations received on the first handbefore the draw. In the example shown in FIG. 2C a player has been dealttwo aces, a three, a six, and a nine. The video poker game 10C mayprovide a bonus or payout for the player having been dealt the pair ofaces, even before the player decides what to discard in the draw. Sincepairs, three of a kind, etc. are typically needed for wins, a playerwould likely hold the two aces that have been dealt and draw three cardsto replace the three, six, and nine in the hope of receiving additionalaces or other cards leading to a winning combination with a higher awardamount. After the draw and revealing of the final hand, the video pokergame 10C typically awards any credits won to the credit meter.

The player selectable soft buttons 29C appearing on the screenrespectively correspond to each card on the video display 20C. Thesesoft buttons 29C allow players to select specific cards on the videodisplay 20C such that the card corresponding to the selected soft buttonis “held” before the draw. Typically, video poker machines 10C alsoinclude physical game buttons 32C that correspond to the cards in thehand and may be selected to hold a corresponding card. A deal/drawbutton 33C may also be included to initiate a gaming session aftercredits have been wagered (with a bet button 32C, for example) and todraw any cards not held after the first hand is displayed.

Although examples of a spinning reel slot machine 10A, a video slotmachine 10B, and a video poker machine 10C have been illustrated inFIGS. 2A-2C, gaming machines and various other types of gaming devicesknown in the art are contemplated and are within the scope of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating networked gaming devicesaccording to embodiments of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3, multipleelectronic gaming devices (EGMs) 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, and 75 may becoupled to one another and coupled to a remote server 80 through anetwork 50. For ease of understanding, gaming devices or EGMs 70, 71,72, 73, 74, and 75 are generically referred to as EGMs 70-75. The termEGMs 70-75, however, may refer to any combination of one or more of EGMs70, 71, 72, 73, 74, and 75. Additionally, the gaming server 80 may becoupled to one or more gaming databases 90. These gaming network 50connections may allow multiple gaming devices 70-75 to remain incommunication with one another during particular gaming modes such astournament play or remote head-to-head play. Although some of the gamingdevices 70-75 coupled on the gaming network 50 may resemble the gamingdevices 10, 10A, 10B, and 10C shown in FIGS. 1A-1B and 2A-2C, othercoupled gaming devices 70-75 may include differently configured gamingdevices. For example, the gaming devices 70-75 may include traditionalslot machines 75 directly coupled to the network 50, banks of gamingdevices 70 coupled to the network 50, banks of gaming devices 70 coupledto the network through a bank controller 60, wireless handheld gamingmachines 72 and cell phones 73 coupled to the gaming network 50 throughone or more wireless routers or antennas 61, personal computers 74coupled to the network 50 through the internet 62, and banks of gamingdevices 71 coupled to the network through one or more optical connectionlines 64. Additionally, some of the traditional gaming devices 70, 71,and 75 may include electronic gaming tables, multi-station gamingdevices, or electronic components operating in conjunction withnon-gaming components, such as automatic card readers, chip readers, andchip counters, for example.

Gaming devices 71 coupled over an optical line 64 may be remote gamingdevices in a different location or casino. The optical line 64 may becoupled to the gaming network 50 through an electronic to optical signalconverter 63 and may be coupled to the gaming devices 71 through anoptical to electronic signal converter 65. The banks of gaming devices70 coupled to the network 50 may be coupled through a bank controller 60for compatibility purposes, for local organization and control, or forsignal buffering purposes. The network 50 may include serial or parallelsignal transmission lines and carry data in accordance with datatransfer protocols such as Ethernet transmission lines, Rs-232 lines,firewire lines, USB lines, or other communication protocols. Althoughnot shown in FIG. 3, substantially the entire network 50 may be made offiber optic lines or may be a wireless network utilizing a wirelessprotocol such as IEEE 802.11 a, b, g, or n, Zigbee, RF protocols,optical transmission, near-field transmission, or the like.

As mentioned above, each gaming device 70-75 may have an individualprocessor 40 (FIG. 1A) and memory 41 to run and control game play on thegaming device 70-75, or some of the gaming devices 70-75 may beterminals that are run by a remote server 80 in a server based gamingenvironment. Server based gaming environments may be advantageous tocasinos by allowing fast downloading of particular game types or themesbased on casino preference or player selection. Additionally, tournamentbased games, linked games, and certain game types, such as BINGO or kenomay benefit from at least some server 80 based control.

Thus, in some embodiments, the network 50, server 80, and database 90may be dedicated to communications regarding specific game or tournamentplay. In other embodiments, however, the network 50, server 80, anddatabase 90 may be part of a player tracking network. For playertracking capabilities, when a player inserts a player tracking card inthe card reader 46 (FIG. 1A), the player tracking unit 45 sends playeridentification information obtained on the card reader 46 through theMCI 42 over the network 50 to the player tracking server 80, where theplayer identification information is compared to player informationrecords in the player database 90 to provide the player with informationregarding their player account or other features at the gaming device 10where the player is wagering. Additionally, multiple databases 90 and/orservers 80 may be present and coupled to one or more networks 50 toprovide a variety of gaming services, such as both game/tournament dataand player tracking data.

The various systems described with reference to FIGS. 1-3 can be used ina number of ways. For instance, the systems can be used to track dataabout various players. The tracked data can be used by the casino toprovide additional benefits to players, such as extra bonuses or extrabenefits such as bonus games and other benefits as described above.These added benefits further entice the players to play at the casinothat provides the benefits.

Because wagering on a gaming device has a strong emotional component,caused in part because of the risk involved in outlaying something ofvalue (usually monetarily based) and the possibility of winningsomething of even greater value, the player's perception of how eventsrelated to this gaming experience unfold partially dictates the player'sfuture wagering choices, from the amounts wagered, to the games theyprefer to play, to even the establishment they prefer to play at.

Through an understanding of a player's past behavior, specific desires,likes and dislikes can be learned. Such knowledge is invaluable inimproving the player's future experience and thereby creating a moreprofitable relationship. With this knowledge, profitable changes in gamedesign, floor layout, environmental conditions, loyalty awards,marketing campaigns, employee staffing, and many other areas arepossible. One of the most basic, but most difficult to ascertain ormeasure, is a player's reaction and behavior in relation to the game onthe gaming device itself.

Player behavior may be recorded and categorized in various formats. Forexample, a specific player's behavior may be analyzed, player behavioron a specific gaming device or type of gaming device may be analyzed,time-based or condition-based player behavior may be analyzed, or playerbehavior for a particular gaming area (such as floor location, casinoproperty, or even geographic location) may be analyzed. Although anyspecific player's behavior may be analyzed over a short term at a singlegaming device, a long term analysis of a player's behavior over manygaming sessions at multiple gaming devices requires that the player bean identified player and their play may be associated and/or stored withthe player's data on a player tracking server or database 80 or 90 (FIG.3). Analysis of specific player's behavior may help a casino betterserve that specific player, which may be particularly important not onlyfor traditional, “high-roller” players but to identify players whoseaffinity, habits and budget makes them candidates for development intohigh roller status.

For a single gaming device or type of device, the behavior of multipleplayers may be recorded and analyzed to determine general reactions togaming device or circumstances occurring on the gaming device. Analysisof this player behavior may help in the design of gaming devices (asmentioned above) or to better understand a player's reaction to certaingame outputs. For time-based and location based player behavioranalysis, player behavior may be analyzed to determine if players areinfluenced or affected by gaming at certain times of the day, gaming incertain areas of the casino, or gaming during a promotion or specialevent occurring at the casino.

As described above, after a player has inserted credits, play of agaming device typically includes a player performing some combination ofpressing buttons, pulling a gaming handle, and/or activating a switch.This combination of actions may include choosing a game to wager on,selecting game parameters, adjusting a wager type or size, andinitiating a game. The game itself is displayed on the game displayincluding the display of a final game result and any intermediate stepsof the game that require player interaction, such as when a bonus gameis triggered during the game.

The button, switch, and bill acceptor can be referred to as playerinterface points and the player's actions can be referred to asinteractions with these player interface points. However, interactionsbetween a player and a gaming device can be more broadly defined as anyinput from a player to a gaming device and any output from the gamingdevice to the player. Each of these interactions could be the source ofa data point for later analysis to help understand many facets of theplayer experience. For example, such data could be used to analyze aspecific player's behavior, average behavior for many players, and/ortypical behavior in response to environmental conditions. As theseinteractions may be used to analyze player behavior, the interactionsare recorded so that they may be later analyzed.

In some embodiments, interactions that may be recorded include physicalinteractions between the player and the gaming device, such as buttonpresses, game handle pulls, insertion of money into the gaming device,player identification actions, activities on a gaming displaytouchscreen, activities on a keypad or other input device, etc.Additionally, interactions in various other embodiments may include gamedevice outputs that are perceivable to the player, such as the displayof a game, a display of a game result, a particular auditory or visualsignal, a touch-based action, etc. From an operation standpoint,interactions may include signals received that are associated with aplayer input to the gaming device and signals generated to output datato the player. Depending on the level of scrutiny desired, theseinteractions may be detailed enough to include recording individual reelstops, credit meter decrementing, auditory signal initiation andcompletion, or light flashes. In other embodiments, the interactions tobe recorded and analyzed may be defined as any physical player inputrelating to the play of the gaming device and at least one of a displayof a gaming result, an intermediate game step, or a bonus.

As an example of how such data could be collected, to begin a gamingsession a player inserts one or more coins or forms of currency. Next,the player selects a wager size and then pushes the play button, whichcauses the game to begin operation at the player's chosen wager amount.Also important is the manner in which a player makes a wager. Manygaming machines include “bet one” and “bet max” wager buttons, forrespectively wagering a single credit or maximum credits on a game. Athree credit wager, for example, is accomplished by either pressing the“bet max” button a single time or pressing “bet one” three times.Players often prefer to alternate between the methods in the belief thatthe game outcome is altered in their favor by doing so. Also, many gamestoday include both “hard” buttons, which are physical switches locatedon a panel below the game screen and “soft” buttons which areimplemented on a video screen with a touch panel overlay. Often, thesame function is implemented in both button styles. Important clues to aplayer's personality—or even just the utility of alternative inputs—aregleaned by analyzing which buttons players choose to press to accomplisha given goal.

After a game is completed, the player may repeat the wager or change theamount in subsequent games played. The player may play until all fundsare exhausted at which time the player can insert additional money orleave the game. Additionally, the player may choose to cash out of thegame by pressing the “Cash Out” button. The player may also adjust theaudio volume of game sound effects by pressing a button one or moretimes. Other player-affected buttons or switches may include lines perwager as well as bet size/line, bonus initiation, help and pay tableactivations. Each of these actions by the player can be recorded by thegaming device and stored as data to be analyzed. In other words, aplayer initiates every action by either inserting wager values oractivating a series of one or more buttons. Therefore, if all wagerinsertions and button activations are recorded and later replayed orotherwise analyzed, player behavior on a given gaming machine can beprecisely observed.

According to some embodiments of the invention, every action, whetherwager insertion or button press, is recorded with a time stamp whichallows analysis not only of the specific steps followed in playing agame but the exact timing with which a game is played as well. Thisinformation can be useful because there can be clues regarding how longa player hesitates between playing each game, for example. It is usefulto record each action with the absolute time and date to a highprecision, for example, to a precision of about 10 milliseconds.

In other embodiments of the invention, only selected or predeterminedinteractions may be recorded. For example, if an analysis of a player'sbehavior after a jackpot win is to be completed, a sequence ofinteractions may be recorded after the occurrence of a jackpot win. Thatis, the interactions between the player and the gaming device are onlyrecorded after a jackpot win to determine player behavior in such acircumstance. The interactions after a jackpot win may be recorded for apredetermined number of interactions, the interactions may be recordedfor a predetermined amount of time, or the interactions may be recordeduntil another predefined event occurs. In another example, a casino maywant to observe player behavior after a sting of losses. In such ascenario, interactions between a player and a gaming device may only berecorded after a predetermined number of consecutive losses. Although,the above examples illustrate two ways selective recording may beutilized, all variations and possible combinations of selectiverecording is contemplated by this invention. In addition, a casinooperator or other administrator may control which interactions arerecorded, set rules and parameters for starting and ending recordings,and define the format and output of the recordings.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram that illustrates a gaming deviceaccording to embodiments of the invention. Referring to FIG. 4, inaddition to the components illustrated in FIG. 1A, the gaming device 10a includes an activity processor 43, an activity memory 44, a sensor 48,and a camera 49. The activity processor 43 can collect data in responseto actions by a player on the gaming device 10 a. The activity processor43 can store the collected data in the activity memory 44. The sensor 48can collect data from the environment surrounding the gaming device 10 asuch as sound, temperature, lighting level, humidity, and smoke level,among other things. The sensor 48 can also collect data related to theplayer, including, among other things, respiration rate and breathalcohol level. The sensor 48 could be an individual sensor, a sensorarray, or a plurality of different individual sensors. The sensor 48 canprovide collected data to the activity processor 43 for processingand/or storage in activity memory 44. The camera 49 can be used togenerate images of the player. The images can be provided to theactivity processor 43 for processing and/or storage in activity memory44. As further described below, the images can be used to determine theplayer's responses to various gaming session events.

A person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that any of thedata collected or analyzed by the activity processor 43 can be providedto an external device on the network 50 through the machinecommunication interface 42. Also, the activity processor 43 and theactivity memory 44 are described above as discrete components. However,a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the activityprocessor 43 can be incorporated into the microprocessor 40 and theactivity memory 44 can be incorporated into the memory 41. It may bedesirable to have a separate activity processor 43 and activity memory44 so that the microprocessor 40 and memory 41 can be dedicated to otheroperations of the gaming device 10 a. Further, the activity processor 43and activity memory 44 are shown as being inside the gaming device 10 a.However, the activity processor 43 and activity memory 44 can becomponents in an activity tracking unit that is physically locatedexternal to the gaming device 10 a, but that is connected to the gamingdevice 10 a in order to collect the data described above.

As an example of how the gaming device 10 a can be used to collect data,a player could insert a $20 bill into the gaming device 10 a on 19 Sep.2008, at 17:50 PM. Next, the player presses the “Bet One Credit” buttonthree times in succession and then presses the “Game Play” buttonshortly thereafter. In response to these actions, the activity processor43 can generate activity records for each interaction. Activity recordsmay be stored in a session report created for a gaming session, which isdiscussed below with respect to FIGS. 6B and 7. A session report thatincludes the activity records for this sequence could look like this:

GAMEID ACTION DATE TIME 1503 $20 Sep. 19, 2008 17:50:00.00 Inserted 1503Bet 1 Sep. 19, 2008 17:50:01.20 1503 Bet 1 Sep. 19, 2008 17:50:02.021503 Bet 1 Sep. 19, 2008 17:50:02.95 1503 Play Sep. 19, 2008 17:50:03.88GAMEID represents a unique identifier for the gaming device beingplayed. ACTION is the action taken by the player, DATE is the date theaction occurred, and TIME is the time at which the action occurred. Inother words, on Sep. 19, 2008 at 17:50:01.20, a $20 bill was insertedinto machine 1503. The term 17:50:01.20 indicates the action occurred at17 hours, fifty minutes and 1.20 seconds after midnight on Sep. 19,2008. Although shown as text strings in the activity record above, aperson of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that any of theentries in the activity record could be recorded as an encoded valuerather than a descriptive text string. For example, instead of stating“$20 Inserted”, the activity record can include a code such as “INS_20”or “BA_20” (symbolizing $20 in the bill acceptor).

While year, month, date and absolute time are useful, they may beomitted for some forms of analysis. Further, one of skill in the art ofwould appreciate that GAMEID could be numeric, alphanumeric or someother coding system, so long as each game is uniquely identified. Inthis example, actions are measured to within 10 milliseconds ofprecision. Greater precision is possible but there may be diminishingreturns with respect to measuring human behavior much more precisely. Itis also possible to use less precision, measuring to the nearest 0.1second for example, though a loss of too much precision may maskvaluable player behavior information. Further, some information may berecorded at different precision levels than other information.

As described above, the activity processor 43 is responsible forcollection of the above-described data. This method may be preferable insome embodiments because it is typically much less expensive toimplement as there is no need to install separate wires to each inputmechanism in the gaming device 10 a. However, collection of such datamay be accomplished in any number of other ways. For example, eachbutton, switch, wager input device, etc. could be wired to a recordingcomputer. The recording computer could read each action in parallel withthe gaming device microprocessor 40. One of ordinary skill in the artwill recognize that there are many other ways to collect actioninformation which all are useful with this invention.

The above example illustrates just a small portion of the informationthat can be collected for each data point. For example, through thesensor 48 information such as sound, temperature, player alcohol level,smoke level and humidity could be logged for each data point. Further,through the camera 49, images of the player could be captured andassociated with each data point. Capturing images and associating themwith every data point may require large amounts of memory to store allof the data points and may implicate some privacy concerns.Consequently, according to some embodiments, the images captured by thecamera 49 are analyzed to produce a small string of values representingdesired information extracted from the images that do not necessarilyidentify the particular player. In this way, the desired informationcontained in the image can be saved without the necessity of largeamounts of memory to save the entire image and without raising privacyissues.

Although, the sensor 48 and the camera 49 are shown as part of thegaming device 10 a in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4, one or bothof the sensor 48 and the camera 49 may be separate from the gamingdevice 10 a in other embodiments. For example, a sensor 48 may belocated within a bank of gaming machines and associated with each gamingmachine in the bank through the bank controller 60 (FIG. 5). Since manyenvironmental conditions are similar within a relatively small gamingarea, a single sensor for a group of gaming devices may rendersufficiently accurate readings without requiring each device to befitted with a sensor. The sensor may be connected to each of the gamingdevices so that recorded activities occurring on the gaming devices maybe associated with readings taken by the remote sensor.

In another example, the camera 49 could be positioned behind or above agaming device so that it could be used to record a different angle, orso that it could be used to record gaming activity at several gamingmachines. A remote camera may also be controlled by a casino operator orother administrator so that it may move and/or zoom to record differentgaming activities among multiple gaming devices. Other embodiments mayemploy the cameras and sophisticated security system that are already inuse in many casinos and gaming establishments. In these embodiments, asecurity server may be connected to a terminal (e.g., 88 FIG. 5) used toanalyze player behavior so that an operator at a terminal can access andcontrol cameras and other devices that are part of the existing securitysystem.

An image feature extraction algorithm could be used (for example, in theactivity processor 43) to extract desired information from imagescaptured by the camera 49. The algorithm could use specified featurepoints in an image of the player's face to determine the player's mood.This information could then be codified with a set of pre-determinedvalues that store the desired information in a small amount of storagespace. Each mood can be represented by multiple levels so that aplayer's mood could be associated with the actions on the gaming device10 a. For example, after a first losing result, the algorithm maydetermine that a player has a level one disappointment mood. Theplayer's disappointment mood may move through several levels as theplayer continues to get losing results in subsequent gaming sessions.After several sessions, the algorithm may determine that the player hasmoved to a level one frustration mood. As the player continues toinitiate gaming sessions, the player's mood may move to level threefrustration and the player may cease playing at this point. Analyzingthis set of data points could lead to the conclusion that at level threefrustration, this particular player is likely to stop playing.Collecting this type of information for individual players and groups ofplayers can be useful to the operator of the casino in managing thegaming experience.

The sensor 48 can also include a microphone that is used to recordutterances from the player in response to events on the gaming device 10a. Such utterances could be used in conjunction with images captured bythe camera 49 to help determine the player's mood. Alternatively, theutterances could be used separately to determine information about theplayer. The information from the microphone could be used with a voicerecognition algorithm to determine what the player is saying, and theoutput of the voice recognition algorithm could be stored with the datapoints in the activity records described above. For example, a datapoint showing the player stopping play provides some utility indetermining player behavior. However, a data point showing the playerstopping play in conjunction with one of the following utterances: “Thismachine will never pay”; or “Oh, time to go to my meeting”; providesmuch more information.

According to some embodiments, the outcome of each gaming event, orinterim step within a gaming event, is also recorded, as are gamemalfunctions and other play interruptions. Additionally, severalinteractions that are recorded may occur within a single gaming event.For example, a player may press the “Bet 5 Lines” button, then press the“Bet 1. Credit per Line” button (which initiates the game), and thenreceive the result of the game wager (all reels are stopped to show thegame outcome). In this example, the gaming event may record three gameinteractions within the one gaming event. In another example, a playermay press the same buttons in the same order, but more interactions maybe recorded. That is, the following interactions may be recorded: 1) theline-bet button press, 2) the bet-per-line button press, 3) theinitiation of spinning the game reels, 4) stopping the first reel, 5)stopping the second reel, 6) stopping the third reel, 7) stopping thefourth reel, and 8) stopping the fifth reel. If a bonus game is providedwithin a gaming device, the time a bonus game begins and ends, as wellas player behavior during the bonus game and bonus game results can allbe recorded. Game configuration information can also be recorded, eitheras a unique record associated either directly or indirectly with theGAMEID, transmitted with each activity record, or transmitted as part ofthe session report. One of skill in the art will recognize that thereare many ways to efficiently store information and all such ways areuseful with this invention.

Also, it may be desirable to record each player identifier insertion andremoval from the player tracking unit 45. According to some embodimentsof the invention, all button presses on the player tracking unit 45 canalso be recorded and optionally time stamped. In this way, events andactions on the gaming device 10 a can be associated with specificplayers.

As described above, activity records can be stored in the activitymemory 44 on a temporary or permanent basis. This information can bereplayed at the game device 10 a or transferred to another location foranalysis (through the network 50 for example). When information isanalyzed at the gaming device 10 a, a separate analysis device is notneeded. However, the information is reviewed on the gaming device 10 aitself, which is typically located on the casino floor. Thus, review andanalysis on the gaming device 10 a can be inconvenient for theadministrator and could block or otherwise limit customer play while theanalysis is performed.

According to some embodiments, historical activity records are collectedby the activity processor 43 and stored only temporarily in the activitymemory 44. At pre-determined intervals, or in response to a query, thehistorical records can be forwarded to one or more other devices forlater analysis. These analysis devices can also be used to performanalysis on information from a number of other gaming devices or even toultimately combine information from many gaming devices and/or manygaming device play sessions into a single report. Another benefit offorwarding historical records to other devices for analysis is thatmultiple copies of historical records can be created and used for backupin case the original copy is altered or destroyed.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a networked gaming systemaccording to embodiments of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, in addition to the components illustrated in FIG.3, the networked gaming system includes a remote server 80 and ananalysis terminal (“terminal”) 88 connected to the server 80. The server80 may include a fetcher 81, a splicer 82, a compiler 83, and ananalyzer 84. Although these elements are shown as part of the server 80,one or more of these elements may be independent from the server 80 andconnected to the server 80 through the network 50. The fetcher 81 may beconfigured to retrieve a session report 86 from a selected on of thegaming devices 70, or from a connected database 90. The splicer 82 maybe configured to stitch together activity records from the fetchedsession report 86. The compiler may be configured to generate arepresentative gaming session from the stitched activity records. Theprocesses of retrieving the session reports, stitching together theactivity records, and generating a representative gaming session isdescribed in more detail below.

As play proceeds in the casino, individual gaming devices 70 maygenerate session reports including activity records, which are stored atthe individual gaming devices. At predetermined intervals, or inresponse to a query from the gaming server 80, all or a portion of theindividual gaming devices 70 can upload their respective session reportsto the gaming server 80 across the network 50. The gaming server 80 canthen store the session reports 86 in a database 90. The session reports86 may include the activity records of the interactions between a playerand a gaming device and various other information about the gamesession, such as image data from the camera, sensor readings from thesensor, or other game data.

At some pre-determined interval, or in response to a query from anadministrator, the analyzer 84 can retrieve the session reports 86 fromthe database 90 and analyze the information contained therein. Theanalyzer 84 can use the information contained in the session reports 86to generate any number of pre-defined reports or recreations of thegaming session. Additionally, the pre-defined reports may display theinformation from the session reports 86 as summarized numerical figures,graphs, or charts. The analyzer 84 may also be configured to detectpatterns in player behavior from the session reports 86 stored in thedatabase 90. The pre-defined reports may include formatting the sessionreports 86 to show selected information within the session reports 86.That is, the analyzer 84 may be configured to search through the sessionreports 86 looking for specific data points or trends that indicate someoccurrence of consequence, such as many unusually high payouts to asingle player. In the event that such an occurrence is discovered, theanalyzer 84 may trigger a notification for an operator or administrator,or simply note such an occurrence on the gaming server 80.

The analysis terminal 88 can be a standard computer that is connected tothe server 80 through the network 50. The analysis terminal 88 can beused to view reports generated by the analyzer 84 and to viewrepresentative gaming sessions generated from the session reports 86. Inother embodiments, the terminal 88 may include a gaming machine that isdirectly wired to the server 80, where a representative gaming sessioncan be shown on the gaming machine under control of the server 80. Theterminal 88 may also include a control interface 89 to allow an operatorto input data that is to be associated with the session report andcontrol the playback of the representative gaming session.

The server may also include a controller 85 that is configured to altergame parameters on at least one of the plurality of gaming devices. Thecontroller 85 may alter these game parameters based on instructionsreceived from an operator at the terminal 88. That is, an operator mayobserve player behavior at the terminal that leads the operator toconclude that game parameters should be altered on the game floor toelicit the observed player behavior (if it was desirable) or prevent theobserved player behavior (if it was not desirable). Additionally, thecontroller 85 may be configured to alter game parameters based upon anautomatically detected pattern of player behavior as determined by theanalyzer 84. For example, if the analyzer examines multiple sessionreports for a particular game with five reels and notices that playersare generally “slamming” through the game when the last two reels arestill spinning, the controller 85 may direct the gaming device todecrease the time between stopping each reel to speed up the games. Thisprocess may act as a control feed back loop, where a certain gameparameter is continually altered in response to analyzed player behaviorin an effort to reach an optimum steady state game configuration.Additionally, for session reports that are tracked for a specificidentified player, the controller 85 may alter the game parameters of agame that identifies that specific player as the player playing thegaming device. For example, if it is noted that certain player has abehavioral reaction to a certain circumstance, the controller 85 maymodify the game parameters at a game where the specific player hasinserted a player club card.

Because there are so many potentially important clues within historicalactivity records, it can be helpful for the administrator to view theinformation in a manner as close to watching a real player as possible.For example, the terminal 88 may render an image of the gaming device(s)for which representative gaming sessions 86 are being examined. Thisrendering, or simulation, could be generalized or very specific anddetailed to the particular game being analyzed. In the case in which theplayer identifier is included in the session report 86, it is oftenpossible to track the play of a player across multiple gaming devices toascertain whether the player's behavior changes when they begin play ona new gaming device. The terminal 88 can optionally show a photo of theplayer (which can be taken from the database 90 or the camera 49 via thesession report 86) in order to have a clearer picture of the gamingsession.

As the gaming session is simulated on the terminal 88 from the sessionreports 86, each button press could be highlighted in a simulationscreen and the actions of the game could be simulated on the screen aswell. For example, spinning reels with symbols matching that of the gamebeing played could be rendered for viewing by the operator oradministrator. Further, the status of credit meters, win meters andother information can be accurately calculated and updated as the gamingsession continues, giving the operator a detailed picture of the gamingsession. The simulation on the terminal 88 can run in real time, that isat the same speed as actual play occurred, or in a faster or slowermanner. The operator can pause and rewind the simulation using thecontrol panel 89, just as if he were viewing a video recording of thegaming session.

Once an interesting play pattern or other occurrence is detected, theadministrator can examine other play sessions by the same player, or byother players, to see if the pattern is repeated. In this way, theadministrator can learn from these session reports 86 how players reactin various situations related to gaming sessions. If an undesirablereaction is found to repeatedly occur, the gaming device(s) can bemodified to overcome the undesirable behavior either through thecontroller 85 as described above, through changes to the gaming deviceon the casino floor, or through game design for the next generation ofgaming devices. Then, new gaming sessions can be recorded on themodified gaming device to see if the undesirable behavior has beenreduced or eliminated. By repeatedly measuring behavior and changinggame play parameters to eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase thefrequency of desirable behaviors, player enjoyment of games can beenhanced along with game play efficiency.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are flow diagrams of a method of analyzing playerbehavior at a gaming device according to embodiments of the invention.An overview of possible steps within these illustrated embodiments willbe discussed briefly before examining additional details and variationsabout these and other embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 6A, the method of analyzing player behavior at agaming device may include recording interactions between a player and agaming device (100), storing the recorded interactions (140), andgenerating a representative gaming session based on the stored recordedinteractions (150).

FIG. 6B includes exemplary details about features that could beimplemented in the embodiments illustrated in FIG. 6A. Referring to FIG.6B, the method of analyzing player behavior at a gaming device mayinclude recognizing interactions between a player and a gaming device(105), associating time stamps with the recognized interactions (115),and generating activity records based on the recognized interactions andassociated time stamps (125). The method may also include adding thegenerated activity record to a session report (145). The session reportmay then be used to recreate a game session so that the player behaviorcan be analyzed. Here, the method includes loading a stored sessionreport (155), stitching activity records within the loaded sessionreport together (165), and generating a representative game session(175). The representative game session may be further displayed (185) sothat player behavior can be observed.

As described above, player behavior may in part be characterized by aplayer's reaction to events that occur on the gaming device. In someembodiments, a selected subset of interactions between a player and agaming device may be recorded around a predetermined event while otherinteractions are not recorded to determine how a player or variousplayers behave in relation to the predetermined event. In otherembodiments, every interaction between a player and a gaming device maybe recorded to perceive a more complete understanding of playerbehavior. Interactions that may be recorded include physicalinteractions between the player and the gaming device, such as buttonpresses, game handle pulls, insertion of money into the gaming device,player identification actions, activities on a gaming displaytouchscreen, activities on a keypad or other input device, etc.Additionally, interactions may include game device outputs that areperceivable to the player, such as the display of a game, a display of agame result, a reduction of credits on a credit meter, a particularauditory or visual signal, a touch-based action, etc.

Referring again to FIGS. 6A and 6B, the step of recording theseinteractions between a player and a gaming device (100) may beaccomplished in some embodiments by recognizing a type of interactionthat has occurred between the player and the gaming device (105). Inembodiments where only a selected subset of interactions is recorded,recognizing the type of interaction includes a determination that theinteraction is selected to be recorded. The recognition may occursubstantially simultaneously or in parallel to the performance of afunction related to the interaction, or may occur at a relatively shorttime after the performance of the function. For example, when a playerpresses a “SPIN” button, the game processor 40 (FIG. 4) may receive asignal that the “SPIN” button 33 has been activated, and perform anaction based on the received signal. The game processor 40 may alsorecognize that the activation of the “SPIN” button 33 is related to aninteraction between the player and the gaming device. The recognition ofthis interaction may include saving an identifier associated with theactivation of the “SPIN” button in a temporary memory or storage area,such as processor cache or Random Access Memory (not shown), devicememory 41, or activity memory 44.

A time stamp may further be associated with the recognized interaction(115), and may also be stored in a temporary memory or storage area. Thetime stamp may reflect a time that an interaction occurred, a time thatinteraction is recognized, or a time that is a shifted by apredetermined amount from one of the time of the interaction orrecognition. Although the precision of the time stamp may be recordeddown to the second in some embodiments, it may be preferable to increasethe precision of the time stamp down to hundredths of a second or moreto accurately reflect the timing between each interaction. A date of theinteraction may further be associated with the interaction. However,because the date does not change at the pace of time, it may beassociated with the interaction separately from the time stamp so thatresources are not wasted by repeatedly determining and storing the dateas part of the time stamp.

For timing purposes, an internal clock (not shown) of the gamingprocessor 40 (FIG. 4) or activity processor 43 may be used. In otherembodiments, a separate timing apparatus may be implemented to recordthe interaction timing. The time stamp may be the actual time aparticular interaction occurred, such as 08:16:44.74 to represent eightsixteen and 44.74 seconds in the morning (AM). Alternatively, the timestamp may reflect the elapsed time from the beginning of a gamingsession. That is, in some embodiments, a timer may be implemented torecord the time from an initial start point (such as the beginning of agaming session), where the time of an interaction is recorded as thetime-stamp. For example, a time stamp may appear something similar to00:01:35.75 to represent that an interaction occurred one minute and35.75 seconds after the beginning of a game session. As discussed below,a session report may include a date and current time information, wherethe current time information includes the time of the start of a gamingsession. Here, the present time of an interaction may still becalculated if needed during analysis by simply adding the recorded timestamp of the interaction to the time the gaming session began to arriveat an actual time the interaction occurred. For example, if a sessionreport recorded the current time at the beginning of a game session as16:10:22.05 (four ten and 22.05 seconds in the afternoon), the aboveinteraction with the time stamp of 00:01:35.75 would have occurred at16:11:57.80. As will be readily understood by one of skill in the art,there are many ways in which to encode and record time and/or dateinformation, of which the above described methods are simply examples.All methods of recording time and/or date of occurrence of playeractivities are useful with this invention.

An activity record may also be generated (125) as part of the recordingof an interaction between a player and a gaming device (100). Asdescribed above, an activity record may include a game identifier,player identifier, type of interaction, date of interaction, time ofinteraction (time stamp), and various other game information. In someembodiments, the activity record may also include the amount of timethat has elapsed from the previous interaction to the presentinteraction. This elapsed time may simply be calculated by subtractingthe time stamp of the previous interaction from the time stamp of thecurrent interaction. In other embodiments, a timer may be triggered uponthe occurrence of an interaction and reset upon the occurrence of asubsequent interaction, where the timer value at the occurrence of thesubsequent interaction is used as the elapsed time.

The activity record may than be added to a session report (145) to storethe recorded interaction as part of a game session (140). A sessionreport may reflect all of the interactions that occur between a playerand a gaming device over a gaming session. A gaming or game session maybe defined as the entire time a player plays a particular gaming device,the entire time a player plays any gaming device over a predeterminedperiod, the entire time a player plays any gaming device without asubstantial break from gaming, the time associated with a particularamount wagered by a player, the time between insertion of credits by theplayer, the time between jackpot or other wins by the player, gamesession may be defined, or any other various metric defining a time ofgaming. A session report may include tabulated activity records in adatabase format, delineated data strings, or other data structures.Activity records may be added to a session report by creating a newentry within the session report and entering the data from the activityrecord into the new entry in the session report. In other embodiments,an address placeholder or pointer of the memory location of the activityrecord may be added to the session report. In still other embodiments,the data from the activity records may be reformatted or processedbefore being added to the session report. For example, an activityrecord may include a numerical code for the event type and a time-stampthat is reflective of a timer value from the beginning of a gamingsession. This data may then be processed so that the event type isdescribed in text strings and the time-stamp value is converted intoreal time by adding the timer value from the activity record to a savedvalue of the real time of the beginning of the game session stored inthe session report.

A representative gaming session may also be generated from the storedrecorded interactions (150). In one embodiment, the session report maybe used to recreate the game session so that the player behavior can beanalyzed. In order to generate a representative gaming session, a storedsession report may be loaded (155) into a processor of the gamingdevice, or a remote processor depending on whether the representativegaming session is to be displayed on the gaming device or at a remotelocation. It is generally advantageous to leave gaming devices availableto players for wagering in order to make additional revenue. Hence,although a representative gaming session could be displayed on a gamingdevice during non-peak gaming times (e.g., Tuesday mid-mornings), it maybe advantageous to load the session report to a remote server anddisplay the representative gaming session on a separate terminal. Asmentioned above, session reports may be stored in temporary or permanentmemory on the gaming device. However, they may also be copied or movedto a remote storage location for ease of remote access and to remove theneed for additional memory storage in gaming devices.

Once a session report is loaded, the activity records within the sessionreport may be stitched together (165). Stitching the activity recordstogether may include taking the individual records and creating a singledata form. For example, if the activity records are stored as delineateddata entries, the stitching process may include creating a continuousdata form that includes entries for every hundredth of a second. Sinceinteractions do not typically occur every hundredth of a second, thestitching process may insert dummy ‘wait’ values in for each entry inthe continuous data form that does not include an interaction. In otherembodiments, the stitching process may include the creation of amultimedia file that places the interactions from the activity recordsat appropriately spaced intervals. These spaced intervals may reflectreal-time intervals or compressed-time intervals.

The stitching process may also include using session report informationto load appropriate data to the stitched activity records. For example,if the game ID is stored in the session report, the stitching processmay load information about the game to include with the stitchedactivity records, such as game type, number of reels, game graphics,etc.

A representative game session may then be created from the stitchedactivity records (175). As described above, the representative gamesession may simply be a tabulated set of data values outputted in aneasy to read/digest format or may be a complete multimedia file thatgraphically shows the gaming device and an actual audio/visualrecreation of the gaming session. Depending on the particular format ofthe representative gaming session, the creation of this representativegaming session may include minor formatting of the stitched activityrecords, or may include loading game graphics and preciselyincorporating button presses with game initiations, displays of gameresults, and other game actions together.

The display of the representative game session (185) is also largelydriven by the completeness and complexity of the generation of the gamesession (175). That is, a realistic recreation of the gaming session maybe shown on a computer or television display, where a simple time lineor tabulation of data may be shown on a display or printed out in areport format. When the representative gaming session is recreated onthe gaming device itself, the game processor may trigger the appropriategame displays to illustrate the actions and timing of the player inresponse to game outputs. A similar representation may be displayed ifthe remote terminal is a computer controlled game device as describedabove. If visual data from a camera or environmental data from a sensorare included as part of the session report, these images or data may bedisplayed in parallel to the display of the gaming device.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method of operating a gaming deviceaccording to embodiments of the invention.

In particular, the method illustrated in FIG. 7 may describe embodimentsof recording a game session by generating a session report. As describedabove, a game session may be defined as the entire time a player plays aparticular gaming device, the entire time a player plays any gamingdevice over a predetermined period, the entire time a player plays anygaming device without a substantial break from gaming, the timeassociated with a particular amount wagered by a player, the timebetween insertion of credits by the player, the time between jackpot orother wins by the player, the time preceding and/or following apredetermined event, or any other various metrics defining a time ofgaming.

Referring to FIG. 7, the method may include beginning a gaming session(200) and creating a session report (205) for the gaming session. Asdescribed above, a session report may include multiple activity recordsthat reflect recorded interactions between a player and a gaming device.The creation of a session report (205) may include generating a name orother identifier for the session report. If the session report is to besaved alongside other reports, the name or identifier may be preferablyunique and describe one or more attributes about the game session, suchas symbols that identify the gaming device, player, time frame, gamelocation, property identification, and/or other similar sessioninformation.

After the session report has been generated (205), the gaming device maydetermine if an interaction to be recorded has occurred between theplayer and the gaming device (210). Once such an interaction hasoccurred, the gaming device may determine an interaction type (220),record the time of the interaction (230), and generate an activityrecord (240) based on the interaction and record time/time stamp. Afterthe activity record has been generated (240), the activity record may beadded to the session report (250). As discussed above, the activityrecords may be added to the session report in database form, indelineated data strings, or in other various storage methods.

In embodiments where only selected interactions are to be recordedaround a predetermined event (e.g., the 20 interactions after a jackpotis won are to be recorded), the determination by the gaming device ofwhether an interaction to be recorded has occurred may include adetermination that the predetermined event has occurred and adetermination that the interaction is within a defined group ofinteractions to be recorded. In addition, a session report may not begenerated until the predetermined event has occurred (i.e., when thegaming session is determined to include the time following apredetermined event). In such a case, the above determination of whetherto record an interaction may include determining whether the interactionis within the sequence of interactions to be recorded after thepredetermined event.

The gaming device may then determine if the gaming session has ended(260). For example, the gaming device may determine if the interactionbetween the player and the gaming device ended the game session, such asthe “cash-out” button being pressed, a gaming result occurring that leftthe credit meter at zero, the insertion of additional credits, etc. Inother embodiments, the game device may determine if a certain amount oftime had elapsed to end the game session, if a certain number ofinteractions has occurred after a predetermined event to end the gamesession, if another predetermined event has occurred to end the presentgame session and initiate a subsequent game session, if a certain amountof credits had been wagered or won, etc. If a game session is determinednot to have ended, the gaming device may again wait for an interactionbetween the player and the gaming device. If, however it is determinedthat the gaming session has ended, the gaming device may close thesession report (270). Closing the session report may include simplymarking an end point in the data within the session report, or mayinclude transferring, copying, and/or storing the session report. Insome embodiments, the session report may be stored in temporary orpermanent memory in the gaming device. In other embodiments, the sessionreport may be transferred to and stored on a remote server or database.In these embodiments, the session report may be transferred over a wiredor wireless network to the remote server or database for storage and/oranalysis.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a method of reviewing a gaming sessionaccording to embodiments of the invention.

In particular, the method illustrated in FIG. 8 may describe embodimentsof generating and displaying a representative gaming session. Asdescribed above, a gaming session can take many different formsdepending on the information that is desired to be analyzed. Since itmay be desirable to obtain player behavior information about a certainplayer, a certain gaming device theme, a certain gaming device location,or other metric, the saving and recreating of gaming sessions may betailored to address and analyze a specific category of information.Further, a gaming session may be analyzed at the gaming device itself ora remote terminal. As discussed above, it is usually advantageous tokeep gaming devices available for wagering. Hence, gaming sessions maybe preferably reviewed at a remote terminal.

Referring to FIG. 8, the method may include determining if an input hasbeen received to review a gaming session (300). If an input has beenreceived, a session report associated with the identified gaming sessionmay be retrieved (310). If a session report is permanently stored orcurrently stored on a gaming device, retrieval of the session report(310) may include contacting the gaming device over a network or otherconnection and loading the session report to a remote server ordatabase. If the representative gaming session is to be displayed on thegaming device itself, or if the associated session report has already bestored in a location separate from the gaming device, retrieval of thesession report (310) may include identifying and loading the desiredsession report.

After a session report has been retrieved, the activity records withinthe session report may be stitched together (320). As discussed above,stitching together the activity records within a session report may becarried out in various manners to transform the individual activityrecords into a continuous data structure. After the activity recordswithin the session report are stitched together, a representative gamingsession may be generated (330). Generating the representative gamingsession may include transforming the stitched activity records into aformat that can be displayed to and reviewed by a human operator, orinto a format that can be manipulated by a computer analyzer. If therepresentative gaming session in generated for a human operator, therepresentative gaming session is then displayed (340).

In embodiments where only a specific group of interactions proximatelylocated to (i.e., preceding and/or following) a predeterminedinteraction are to be reviewed, the stitching process (320) may includeidentifying which of the activity records in a session report are to beextracted and stitched together. That is, not all activity recordswithin a session report are necessarily stitched together since theoperator may request a representative gaming session that includes onlya portion of session report or several portions of multiple sessionreports.

During the display of the representative gaming session, it may bedetermined if an input has been received from the operator (350) tomanipulate the session. If no operator input is detected, it may also bedetermined if the representative game session has ended (390). These twodeterminations may continue until an operator input is received or therepresentative game session ends.

If an operator input is received, it may be determined what type ofoperator input has been received (360). That is, it may be determinedwhether the operator input aims to alter the session report or merely tomanipulate the display of the representative gaming session. If theoperator notes a particular type of player behavior in reviewing therepresentative game session, the operator may want to add notes or codesymbols to identify the player behavior with a particular gameinteraction or outcome. For example, the operator may notice that aparticular player always increases his or her bet after receiving fivelosing outcomes. Here, the operator may want to note that this playerexpects that the game is “due” for a win because several losing outcomeshave been received consecutively. In another example, the operator maynotice that most players on a particular game play at a faster rate ofspeed after hitting a bonus win. Here, the operator may note thatplayers in general feel lucky or hot after hitting bonus wins on thisparticular game. Thus, an operator may want to add notes or flag asession report to show a particular trend or indication of playerbehavior. In such a circumstance where an operator input is received anddetermined to be an input to alter the session report (360), the sessionreport may be altered (370) to reflect this input. In addition, anoperator may trim a session report (i.e., save only a portion of theactivity records within the session report and discard the remainder ofthe activity records) or join multiple session reports together. Forexample, a specific type of player behavior may be isolated for analysisor periods of inactivity or activities of low interest may be removedfrom the session report. In such instances, the operator may manuallyuse the terminal to alter the session report (360/370). In otherembodiments, the operator may utilize the analyzer 84 (FIG. 5) oranother algorithm on the server 80 or terminal 88 to automatically gothrough a desired session report or multiple session reports to trimand/or join the session reports.

Operator inputs may also be received to manipulate the display of therepresentative game session (380). For example, an operator may‘fast-forward’ or skip through a portion of the representative gamesession to see a future interaction, or an operator may ‘rewind’ therepresentative game session to review a particular sequence ofinteractions or events. Additionally, an operator may end the display ofthe game session, pause the display for a break, or change the size,content, or timing of the display (e.g., go through a sequence ofinteractions in ‘slow motion’).

Some embodiments of the invention have been described above, and inaddition, some specific details are shown for purposes of illustratingthe inventive principles. However, numerous other arrangements may bedevised in accordance with the inventive principles of this patentdisclosure. Further, well known processes have not been described indetail in order not to obscure the invention. Thus, while the inventionis described in conjunction with the specific embodiments illustrated inthe drawings, it is not limited to these embodiments or drawings.Rather, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications,and equivalents that come within the scope and spirit of the inventiveprinciples set out in the appended claims.

1. A method of capturing the behavior of players at a gaming device thatdisplays a plurality of symbols on a plurality of reels that when spunand stopped at a predefined reel stop for each reel produce acombination of symbols from the reels as a game outcome comprising:displaying gaming events played on the gaming device by players during agaming session of each of the players, each player creating anassociated game session; permitting each player to play a game on thegaming device responsive to actuation of a game initiating button;recording and storing data generated by the gaming device reflectinginsertion of one of a ticket and a bill into a bill acceptor, actuationof a bet button, and actuation of a cash-out button; recording andstoring data generated by the gaming device reflecting the combinationof symbols displayed for the outcome of each game played on the gamingdevice; associating a time stamp with each recorded data; storing eachrecorded data in in the game session associated with the player;analyzing multiple session reports; and altering at least one gameparameter of the gaming device in response to such analysis of themultiple session reports.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprisingrecording, via a sensor, at least one environmental conditioncorresponding to a proximate area of the gaming device.
 3. The method ofclaim 2 further comprising associating the recorded environmentalcondition with a corresponding session report.
 4. The method of claim 1further comprising tracking an emotional response of one of the playersvia a camera.
 5. The method of claim 4 further comprising associatingthe tracked emotional response with a corresponding session report. 6.The method of claim 1 further comprising recreating the game session ofone of the session reports on the gaming device.
 7. A method ofcapturing the behavior of players at a gaming device that displays acombination of symbols as a game outcome, the method comprising:automatically recording, via a processor, data generated by the gamingdevice because of action by each of the players, including datagenerated responsive to insertion of one of a ticket and a bill into anacceptor, actuation of a bet button, and actuation of a cash-out button;automatically recording, via a processor, data generated by the gamingdevice to trigger an output that is perceivable to each player,including each game outcome; associating a time stamp with the recordeddata; storing each recorded data and associated time stamp in a sessionreport corresponding to a game session for each player; analyzingmultiple session reports; and altering at least one game parameter ofthe gaming device in response to such analysis of the multiple sessionreports.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein recording data includes:recognizing each interaction between each player and the gaming device;associating a time stamp with data reflecting each recognizedinteraction; and including each recognized interaction and an associatedtime stamp in a corresponding player session report.
 9. The method ofclaim 7, wherein at least one of the session reports includes at least agame identification code, an activity description, and a recorded time.10. The method of claim 7, further comprising associating the alteredparameter with one of the players when the one player is an identifiedplayer.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein altering a parameter of thegaming device includes altering a parameter of a different gaming devicethat identifies the one player.
 12. The method of claim 7, wherein theparameter is temporarily altered.
 13. The method of claim 12, whereinthe parameter is continually modified in response to newly recorded andanalyzed session reports.
 14. A method of capturing the behavior of aplayer at a gaming device that displays a combination of symbols as agame outcome, the method comprising: automatically recording, via aprocessor, data generated by the gaming device because of action by theplayer, including data generated responsive to insertion of one of aticket and a bill into an acceptor and actuation of a bet button;automatically recording, via a processor, data generated by the gamingdevice to trigger an output that is perceivable to the player, includingeach game outcome; associating a time stamp with the recorded data;storing each recorded data and associated time stamp in a session reportcorresponding to a game session for the player; analyzing the sessionreport during the game session; and altering at least one game parameterof the gaming device in response to such analysis of the session report.15. The method of claim 14, wherein recording data includes: recognizingeach interaction between each player and the gaming device; associatinga time stamp with data reflecting each recognized interaction; andrecording each recognized interaction and an associated time stamp inthe session report.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one ofthe session reports includes at least a game identification code, anactivity description, and a recorded time.
 17. The method of claim 14,further comprising associating the altered parameter with the playerwhen the player is an identified player.
 18. The method of claim 17,wherein altering a parameter of the gaming device includes altering aparameter of a different gaming device that identifies the player. 19.The method of claim 14, wherein the parameter is temporarily altered.20. The method of claim 19, wherein the parameter is continuallymodified in response to newly recorded and analyzed interactions.